Are Investors Buying or Selling Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF), and What Should You Do?

Recent insider trends for Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) have caught the attention of investors. Analysts monitor insider data to understand the sentiment of a company’s largest and most important shareholders. CLF’s insider trading patterns have some implications for where the stock might be headed.

Institutions own 59.68% of Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF)’s shares. The total value of these holdings, in millions, is $1,062. Among active positions in the latest quarter, 140 holders increased their positions by a total of 36.62 million shares, 143 holders decreased the positions by a total of 47.1 million shares, and 29 holders held their positions. This works out to a net decrease in ownership of 10.48 million shares, and suggests that institutions are feeling bearish about the stock.

Among new and sold out positions, 41 holders initiated new positions by a total of 10.01 million shares and 68 holders exited their positions by a total of 23.1 million shares. This nets out to a decrease of 13.09 million shares and is another bearish sign for CLF.

In the last three months, insiders executed a total of 6 trades. 5 of these were buys and 1 were sells. Insider ownership increased by a total of 106739 shares, which suggests that CLF’s key executives are feeling more optimistic about the outlook for the stock. The data from the past twelve months tells a similar story: insiders executed 5 buys and 1 sells, and ownership increased by a net of 106739 shares.

Analysts often look at short interest, or the number of shares currently being shorted by investors, to aid in their outlook for a particular stock. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF)’s short interest is 39.06 million shares, or 16.85% of the float. This represents a decrease of -8% in the number of shares being shorted compared to the previous reading, and implies that investors felt less pessimistic about the stock during the past two weeks.

In light of the insider ownership and trading data it makes sense to consider technicals to see if they come to a similar conclusion about the outlook for CLF. A composite of 13 technical indicators that includes measures such as moving averages and momentum oscillators suggests that CLF is a Strong sell, which implies that CLF is expected to underperform the market based on prior trading patterns.

Conclusion

Institutional ownership trends suggest that the stock is cheap and the insider trading data indicates that insiders are bullish. Technical indicators (also) suggest that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF) is overvalued.

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